


Critical

by RedScullyRevival



Category: The Twilight Zone, Twilight Zone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-18
Updated: 2019-07-18
Packaged: 2020-07-07 23:49:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19860067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedScullyRevival/pseuds/RedScullyRevival





	Critical

[Critical](https://vimeo.com/348852937) from [redscullyrevival](https://vimeo.com/redscullyrevival) on [Vimeo](https://vimeo.com).

"Critical" by Tunde Olaniran  
The Twilight Zone, 2019  
The Twilight Zone, 1959  
vid by redscullyrevival

VID NOTES:

I hit some pretty weird emotional patches during this project which from planing to completion took about three months. I reached a sustained point of feeling stupid and silly putting all the effort I was into something I knew wouldn’t be well received because it’s for a “fandomless” series; it’s too political; it’s too personal; it’s too long; it’s too weird. 

This vid is absolutely made up of scenes from The Twilight Zone but the core of it rotates on an axis of my own horror, anger, and feelings of powerlessness regarding big social and political problems and fears.

A big part of keeping all the wolves at the door (for me anyways) is in recognizing how things have changed AND in giving recognition to all the ways in which we as a country, as a culture, haven’t changed in the sense that there have always been big concepts, problems, and fears to attempt to address and conqueror.

We cannot allow ourselves to slip into the narrative positioning of “We use to be better, what happened?” because that gives way to the (ill)logical notion there is something, some one, some group, to blame. And there isn’t. It’s always been this critical. The progression of time and society has made historical struggles and concepts seem more “subtle” then they really were. We today cannot fully understand the lived reality of past eras, except perhaps through our shared stories. 

It felt incredibly fitting to me then how a Twilight Zone revival series was my best bet to really address all the many rotating thoughts and feelings I have between the tuned out static of my daily life to forefront issues regarding the struggle for our national identity - a struggle not just between family members, generations, and sociopolitical groups but within each of us on an individual level. 

I think the comforting but complex feelings The Twilight Zone elicited from me has something to do with the fact that while America is far from fucking “fixed” a lot of the concerns of the original series and then even the 80s revival have shifted (other than the nazi stuff, evidently, fucking christ). The progression of time and society has made those other series seem more subtle then they originally were. 

I mean, lol, can’t really have a go at The Twilight Zone with this shitty “0% political!” spiel gunning for genre media nowadays. It’s been explicitly documented that The Twilight Zone has always been incredibly political and reflective. 

But, again, time has shifted society in it’s growth, direction, focuses, and issues - along with storytelling modes, means, and vices. Not by a lot mind you, but still. And for me at least there exists an odd nugget of hope in how one day “Point of Origin” may seem mildly vague and idiosyncratic with it’s ICE motif, right? Sigh.

The initial imagery I came up with that propelled this entire project along was that of Sophie (Zazie Beetz), battered and dusty, hobbling up to a storefront showing the original series/past America - which is what I thought was going to happen in the episode but didn’t. So I’ve put the images there myself.

I’ve attempted to use dipping into black and white throughout the video not just as a fun aesthetic bit (of which it still certainly is), but to try and reinforce the idea that things have always been critical: These are new stories from a contemporary TV show but slap black and white on them and we could pretty easily position these characters, themes, and concerns into our past just as well as they comment on and fit into our present. 

The progress, the differentiation from the original series and it’s time, is in how this new show is much more inclusive within who is producing, writing, directing, and staring in it. The creative power has changed.

So, yeah, while we’re still fighting a lot of the same fights we are doing so within new modes of understanding and living contemporary existence which, rough as it is to hear at times, is a form of progress. Things are not alright and I’m not okay with my country. I wanna run, but I won’t - I have to acknowledge the protests, the efforts, the push back, my own rage and hurt as proof we’ve come far just as much as it’s proof we’re slipping. 

And ain’t that just a weird fuckin’ space to occupy, huh? How frustrating even among growth. How scary it can be amidst hope. How very Twilight Zone.


End file.
